Cobalt-Catalyzed Aerobic Oxidative Cleavage of Alkyl Aldehydes: Synthesis of Ketones, Esters, Amides, and α-Ketoamides.

A widely applicable approach was developed to synthesize ketones, esters, amides via the oxidative C-C bond cleavage of readily available alkyl aldehydes. Green and abundant molecular oxygen (O2 ) was used as the oxidant, and base metals (cobalt and copper) were used as the catalysts. This strategy can be extended to the one-pot synthesis of ketones from primary alcohols and α-ketoamides from aldehydes.